You've seen it soaring above you in the O-Dome, taunting you with that little slip of paper that dangles beneath it. You've heard the whirl of its motor as it flies by, pushing speeds upwards of 10 mph! Yes, that's right. I'm talking about the MegaBook Blimp. Since I'm sure that many of you have often pondered the story behind "the blimp," I met with the pilot, Joe Gleason, to find out what really goes on with that big blue balloon.

The blimp was originated by Jay Curtis. While the bag was of course manufactured, he built the rest of it from scratch, and apparently he did a good job, because the blimp has yet to break to down. However, when Curtis found that he didn't really have time to keep flying the blimp at games, his friend Joe Gleason took over.

The main workings of the blimp include three fans, the front two of which are mounted on a rotating rod for controlling up/down and forward/backward motion. The rear fan allows for turning left and right. The blimp is piloted via a remote control with throttles for the fans and a lever for rotating the front fans. A 7.2V NiMH battery supplies power and a simple rotating screw holds the coupons to be dropped. The bag of the blimp is filled with helium and then loaded with lead weights to achieve neutral buoyancy.

I bet you're thinking flying a blimp sounds easy. Well apparently it isn't as simple as it seems. Joe has let others take a crack at flying before: "Whenever I let someone else fly the blimp they usually fly into the seats." While he claims that he hasn't hit anyone straight on, Joe did admit that he's had some close calls. "The hardest part of the job is deciding where to drop the coupon," he said.

MegaBook sponsors the blimp and supplies the Red Baron coupons that it drops from the sky. For those of you who can't enough of those pizza coupons, the blimp can be seen at gymnastics meets, volleyball games, and men's and women's basketball games.